Software Development of a Multilevel Battery System for an Electric Aircraft

This paper presents the development of safety-critical battery controller software for an electrically powered glider in compliance with aerospace standards. The development process involves several mandatory tasks, such as requirements-based testing, ensuring traceability, and performing software verification and validation. The embedded software consists of multiple layers, which are discussed in this paper in the context of a multilevel battery control system. The multilevel battery system is designed for two primary applications: an electric glider and an unmanned lift-to-cruise vehicle. The functional algorithm for the battery control system is developed using MATLAB and Simulink, enhanced by the process-oriented build tool, mrails, ensuring adherence to aerospace standards. The functional code is subsequently linked to the operating system layer through the middleware layer. The A53 core of the S32G2 hardware, developed by NXP, is used for the battery main control application. A custom certifiable real-time operating system, ìC/OS-II, providing time and space partitioning, hosts the application. Real-time testing of the components will be conducted on a modular hardware-in-the-loop test bench. This paper aims to present the integration of model-based functional code into the operating system in the context of safety-critical systems.